Recent pics from my garden (pic heavy)

[Noreaster]

I hope it's ok to post a lot of pics. I don't have a very big garden or hosta collection compared to most people here, but my garden is really having a leap year so I wanted to share. I have a lot of damage from fluctuating temps and days of high wind, but if you blur your eyes, most things still look ok, for now.


My largest bed



from the side of that one


Liberty, Big Daddy and Little Sunspot. Sea Gulf Stream in the pot, and unhappy this year.




Tokudama Flavocirnalis, My Cup of Tea, which I really like (but very slow!), and Alliahs Grace (sp?)...Regal Splendor and Thunderbolt up top. I ghave to figure out what to put in the planters for the summer.


Thunderbolt and Loyalist


Pandora's Box, Maui Buttercups, Blue Mouse Ears, Regal Splendor



Queen of the Seas- my first Hallson hosta in '07



Mister Watson, also from Hallson's in 07 looks great this year. It looks small, but in real life the leaves are quite large this year


Another bed. This one has three of my favorite all green hosta- Lily Pad (love the shine), Rosedale Spoons (love the cups), and Manhattan (love everything about that one, including the flowers). The two blue and white ones are Tom Schmid. June Moon and Touch of Class in the background


Tokudama Flavocircinalis, Blue Cadet (?), Heatwave, and Tom Schmid again. TS is really elegant, I think.


Manhattan



Rosedale Spoons- new from Hallson's last year and looking huge and terrific this season. The little mixed up one is Venusta....which I guess I have to dig up and separate out this year.


Small bed of smaller hosta ...Teaspoon, Sleeping Beauty, Candy Dish, High Society, Blue Sliver, Rainforest Sunrise



This is my first bed that I started in '06. Hosta in this bed are Lakeside Elfin Fire, Remember Me, Love Pat, and El Nino, added this year. On top of the rock are Diana Remembered and Fire and Ice


The area up by the back fence is new this year. I didn't have the money to buy stones this year, so I coated some cinder blocks with hypertufa and am pretty happy with the results. Hopefully I'll get some nice moss growing on there soon. There are three hypertufa planters mixed in, which I will put some colorful annuals in. The astilbe is Bridal Veil, which should look great with El Nino if I can stop whatever bugs destroy the buds on there every year. Oh, that sorry looking gold one above El Nino on the right is Emerald Ruff Cut.



My very first hosta, Regal Splendor. Unlike it's ugly new neighbor, Emerald Ruff Cut, this one never gives me any grief and always looks great. Elegans and Parhelion behind that.


That's all for now- thanks for looking.

[loyal & true]

Noreaster, everything is beautiful. I love the different elevations, various types of rock, the variety of trees, and fencing. The hypertufa was a great idea and it will look great with moss growing on it. The semi circle of Lilies of the Valley frames that large bed beautifully. Because of your lovely pictures I have added Rosedale Spoons and Queen of the Seas to my wish list! Thanks alot!

[largosmom]

I can smell the fresh air looking at your photos!

[Noreaster]

Thanks, guys!

Loyal & True, I hope you enjoy those hosta!

Most gardeners I know cringe at the site of all that Lily of the Valley, but I actually really love how it looks against everything. It's one of the only things that was planted by whoever owned this house in the past, and I'd venture to say that they didn't plant much of it. Let's just say that it's really, really happy where it's at! I've removed about half of it (fun job), and what's left I control by digging trenches around it and burying plastic edging. So far, it seems manageable. I'll never get rid of it, even if I could, because I like the contrast of it with the hosta.

Here is another shot of my hypertufa block wall. I hope to get it planted in the next few days. I've got Lakeside Ripples, Stained Glass, Blue Hawaii, Flemish Sky and Guardian Angel set in there right now. Maybe too much. Moss hopefully won't be a problem because this is naturally a very mossy spot in the garden.

[steg]

Noreaster - everything looks fantastic! Hard to pic a favorite spot....

[party_music50]

Your gardens are very nice, and your hypertufa blocks look really cool!

[Linda P]

Wow!!!!! Those are really some happy-looking hostas, and your beds are wonderfully arranged and displayed.
I absolutely love your idea of coating the cinder blocks with hypertufa. I have a raised seedling bed made out of cinderblock, and it's so ugly. I will file that idea away and hope to copy it one day.
I am putting Tom Schmid on my wish list. It really is an elegant plant.
Thanks so much for sharing your garden with us. I'll come back to look at it again and again, and I wish I could walk through it.
There's such a sense of peace that comes through your pics.

Linda P

p.s. I have lily of the valley around, too, and even though I curse it at times, I will always keep some. I love the smell of it in bloom...takes me right back to my childhood.

[renaldo75]

Beautiful gardens, Noreaster!! I can see why you're excited about them this year. They look wonderful.

I worked as a floral designer in Southern CA in the early 1980s, and the shop where I worked did a lot of weddings.
We would get Lily of the Valley in when needed, and they were sold in bunches of 10 stems. VERY expensive.
We had to charge $4 per stem which was shocking to me when I first started working there. I used to tell my mom
that she could make a fortune with her LOTV on the north side of the house. It was a foot deep and 20-30 feet long.
TONS of blooms in there. I don't think she ever believed me though...

[Noreaster]

Thanks for the nice comments, everyone! Things have really taken a beating with the recent weather so I suspect they'll all start to not look so great, so I'm enjoying them while I still can.

Linda, someone on Dave's Garden did something really cool to dress up cinder blocks, too. She had a fixed retaining wall type of thing made out of cinder blocks and she had someone come in and apply these stones that were basically just slivers of stone with a flat side. So the final product looked exactly like a stacked stone wall. I considered doing that, but wasn't sure how permanent I wanted the wall to be since I'm always changing things around. Also, not that I tried very hard, but I couldn't find anyone selling those stone slivers...and cost wise it's tough to beat hypertufa, so I went with that. I'm working on another set for the side of the house now.

[thy]

Looking good,very good

Linda said most of it Tom Schmid and Rosedals Spoons will be on my list.
Your hostas looks great
Your manhattan look very happu, mine have done for years in a pot, but this year it is scrinking, so in the soil it will go
Somehow my potting soil is conpressing ( SP) this year... due yo our snowy winiker for 3 months or. i do not know, but it is a fact in several pots

Yes, they are too close, you have to give them more space.

Your stone work is great and I have never thought of adding tufa to concrete blocks.. I will lent the idea
Did you just "paint it on" ?

For fast moss; Add sone low fat ecological milk ( not homogeniced.. it it what you call it, not having the fat smashed ) with some moss in a blender and paint with the solution..

Thanks for sharing and we will never get tired of hosta pics

Pia

[dash]

Hi Noreaster,
From one Mainer to another,really enjoyed looking at your garden. You have a great imagination and a wonderful collection of hosta. Mine seem to have taken more frost damage, yours look great.I've added several to my wish list. Thanks again - Dash

[HostaDesigner]

These are FANTASTIC! I am insanely jealous of the slope and the outcroppings. There are more than a dozen good ideas for our own gardens here. Thanks for the tour!

[Hostahaveum]

Absolutely stunning gardens ! I love every inch of all your plantings ! Could you please explain the cinder block walls you made in another post. I love yours better than the professional stacked walls & hard scapeing . You did a great job. Thank-you for sharing your pictures & ideas with us.

[newtohosta-no more]

I enjoyed your pics immensely! Everything looks gorgeous!

[Noreaster]

Hi Noreaster,
From one Mainer to another,really enjoyed looking at your garden. You have a great imagination and a wonderful collection of hosta. Mine seem to have taken more frost damage, yours look great.I've added several to my wish list. Thanks again - Dash

Dash, I kept everything covered during the recent frost, but somehow I think it managed to miss my yard altogether, as there was no frost on the lawn or anywhere that I could see. I'm sorry yours took a hot and hope it's not too bad.

These are FANTASTIC! I am insanely jealous of the slope and the outcroppings. There are more than a dozen good ideas for our own gardens here. Thanks for the tour!

Yes, I'm very fortunate that our yard has so many built in features of interest. The rock makes digging a simply hole virtually impossible, but I am still glad to have them.

Absolutely stunning gardens ! I love every inch of all your plantings ! Could you please explain the cinder block walls you made in another post. I love yours better than the professional stacked walls & hard scapeing . You did a great job. Thank-you for sharing your pictures & ideas with us.

Sure- basically, I just coated one side of a cinder block. I left the tops uncoated because I plan on topping them with some leftover flat stones I have. If I wanted to cover the holes, I would lay a piece of 1/4" hardware cloth on there before applying the hypertufa. The hypertufa is the consistancy of dry mud, so I pat it on, an inch or two thick. First I wet the blocks and I also did paint on a quick slurry mix of portland cement and concrete bonding agent (Home Depot, Lowes, etc). This is the formula I use for most of my hypertufa projects:

1 part Portland Cement
1 part Peat moss, screen out the big lumps
1 part sand
1 part Perlite

The mix should not be so wet that it slumps. If you've never tried hypertufa, you can google it for more detailed instructions, but it's really pretty simple. A day or two after applying the tufa, I go back and rough up the surface with a wire brush.

One thing to note is that hypertufa dries pretty light...and the sun bleaches it further as well. I have some concrete acid stains that I spritz on with a squirt bottle. That makes it match my natural stone in the yard pretty wel.

Here are some of the blocks after they've been stained...you can see the containers up front haven't been stained yet.


Here is close up of the blocks..I'm filling the holes with gravel before topping them with stones


Another pic from today- better shot of My Cup of Tea and Alliyah's Grace. Both of those are looking great this year. I keep a copper collar around My Cup of Tea because I can't stand it when the slugs chew up the white edges of that one (although the leaves are very thick). I also made that little fountain out of hypertufa, and the small planter there needs to be stained as well.


Thanks again, everyone!

[loyal & true]

I am so amazed at all of the work you have done and I absolutely love the little fountain---I noticed it before I even read that you had made it. I think water features add so much to a garden and now you have inspired me to add another one! What is the base of the fountain? Thank you for the tour and the great ideas!
Mary

[Shade Tolerant]

Noreaster your gardens are just gorgeous!
In your first pic the hosta in the upper right corner, is that possibly Dream Weaver or Thunderbolt?

[Hostahaveum]

Thanks so much for the pictures & directions , I found about 20 cinder blocks in the barn leftover from hubby's last project. I am so excited to try this , I have already made my home depot shopping list for the ingredients & enlisted my bro for some lifting & toting help. He got so excited when I showed him your idea I think we are gonna make some for his yard also. Thanks again for all the inspiring photographs.

[John]

Beautiful gardens! Thank you for sharing photos--- I feel like I've been there!

Plus what everyone else said, I love the white birch trunks lighting up the darker areas.

[Noreaster]

I am so amazed at all of the work you have done and I absolutely love the little fountain---I noticed it before I even read that you had made it. I think water features add so much to a garden and now you have inspired me to add another one! What is the base of the fountain? Thank you for the tour and the great ideas!
Mary

Mary, I think they add a lot, too. A woman that owns a nursery here helped me a lot with advice when I was first starting my garden, and I remember her saying that everyone MUST have a water feature, even if it's just a small birdbath. The base of the fountain is a cement cylinder that I made with a hollow center- that's how the tube from the pump comes up thru the middle. The flat, faux- millstone part sits on top of that. Then of course the water reservoir sits under all that and is topped with pebbles. I was very lucky that I was able to actually dig a hole in that spot. Remarkable, considering all the ledge under everything.



Shade Tolerant, yes, that one is Thunderbolt. I almost had a nervous breakdown last year when I accidentally got Round-Up on it. Luckily no harm done but I'll never go within 20 feet of it with Round-Up again!

John, I love the white of the birches, too. That's why I planted the white astilbe and moved El Nino there. Should be a nice combo when El Nino matures and the astilbe blooms


I pretty much finished the block wall today- Left to right, Guardian ANgel, Flemish Sky, Blue Hawaii, Stained Glass, and Cutting Edge. I think I have them spaced ok.


I love the way this whole thing came out because I think it ties together the two front beds. There was nothing but weeds there before, pretty much.



Hostahaveum, good luck and I'm glad I've inspired you to try it! The worst part is lugging those bags of Portland Cement, so it's good that you have help. Another tip, if you want to invest in some new cinder blocks, I found out (after I started), that they make thinner cinderblocks- like 6" or 4" wide instead of 8". I used some 6" ones for this wall, and let me just say that they were MUCH nicer to work with. The 4" ones are a total piece of cake, and that's what I'm using for the little wall I;m making now for the side of the house.